


a new try to an old way

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Flying Doctors
Genre: Angst, Canon Het Relationship, Community: 1-million-words, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-26 09:27:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12554384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: When what's likely to be Annie Horton's remains are discovered in the bush, Johnno thinks he knows how it's going to affect Rowie. He's wrong.





	a new try to an old way

**Author's Note:**

> For the weekend challenge. My prompt was "skull"

When the news first comes through, Johnno first thought is of Rowie. 

A skull, more than likely belonging to that of a human child, found in the middle of the bush, not more than a dozen miles away from where little Annie Horton had gone missing over twenty years ago? A skull that bore all the hallmarks of having been buried for years and recently unearthed by some other animal, dropped and left in the open where campers could come across it? A skull with teeth intact, that could be checked against dental records? 

A twenty plus year old mystery has more than likely just been solved, but no-one in the town feels any happiness about it. 

He thinks most people's first thoughts - and if not, definitely their second - were probably of Rowie. 

And Johnno knows better than most how this is going to affect Rowie, remembers how bad it had been when that no-good journo and his fake Annie arrived in town, stirred it all up again. (The fact that that whole thing had probably been one of the final nails in the coffin for whatever he and Rowie had together is neither here nor there. Mostly.) She's going to have to grieve for her friend all over again, deal with the guilt of leaving her behind, with the memory of watching her walk away from her, never to been seen again. And knowing her, she's probably going to try to be strong for Beryl, Annie's mother, who's going to take this even harder than Rowie herself. It's going to be brutal. 

It's going to be brutal and Johnno's second thought is that it's not his place to worry about that any more. 

Doesn't matter that he's still in love with Rowie. Doesn't matter that she thinks they're too different, that they'd make each other miserable. (He disagrees, but he also doesn't want to be That Bloke, so.) Doesn't matter that he'd do anything to take her pain away, would do anything to help her out. None of that matters because she's not going to want his help and he's a nice bloke so he's going to respect that. 

He's also got a big property that he can drive around, lots of firewood to chop into little pieces and, if all else fails, an excellent bottle of whiskey that was a buck's present from Guy that they'd barely made a dent in. One way or another, he figures he'll sleep just fine tonight. 

That's until he pulls up outside his property, sees a familiar white car already there. He parks beside it, makes his way up the path to the front porch and Rowie is sitting there, on his steps, hunched over so that her chin is touching her knees, her arms wrapped around them so tightly her knuckles are white. Tension runs along her shoulders like a taut wire and Stevie Ray is lying down beside her, his head against one knee, his usually perpetually in motion tail perfectly still. The mutt must know that something's up, because while he looks at Johnno, he doesn't do anything to disturb the peaceful coexistence they've got going on since about two weeks after he bought this place from Bronwyn and Stevie Ray finally accepted the new status quo. The dog just whines, thumps his tail against the porch once, then pads away, tail downcast, head equally so. 

Johnno's never been told not to stuff something up by a dog before; it's a bit of a new experience for him. 

Then Rowie lifts her head and looks at him. There are tears in her red-rimmed eyes, more running down her cheeks. Her face is pale, huge blotches of red all over and as he stares down at her, a sob escapes her lips. 

That pretty much does it for Johnno, because it may not be his place any more but there's no way in hell he can stand there and watch her cry and not take her in his arms and hold her. 

He's expecting resistance - even in the good times of their relationship, Rowie had never exactly been what you'd call demonstrative - but instead she all but collapses against him, her head fitting right into the same place it always had, his cheek on the top of her head, one arm around her waist and the other hand moving through her hair. She cries and she cries and she cries, in a way that he'd never seen her do when they were together and he doesn't say a word. He just holds her and he strokes her hair and he doesn't let go, not even when her sobs subside and she's quietly trembling in his arms. Especially not then. 

"I'm sorry," she whispers eventually. "I just... I didn't know where else to go." 

"It's OK " He shrugs with the arm not wrapped around her shoulders. He says it, not just because it seems like the thing that he should say, but because it happens to be the truth. "It's always OK. You know that." Fine, so that was a bit more honesty than he was shooting for. He's half expecting her to bolt, but she doesn't. Instead, she drops her head to his shoulder again, actually presses her body closer to his. 

And Johnno knows that this is a bad idea, knows he's opening a door to his heart that he'd done his best to nail closed. He asks the question anyway. "You want to come inside? I'll make us dinner... you can help, or crash out on the sofa... we can talk or not talk... whatever you want." 

He doesn't realise he's holding his breath until she lifts her head, her eyes meeting his. Her gaze is steady and unblinking so he can see the second she makes up her mind, knows what she's going to say before she opens her mouth. "I'd like that." She sounds hesitant, teeth catching her bottom lip. "But-"

"It doesn't have to mean anything." He doesn't feel bad about interrupting her, especially not when relief stamps itself all over her face. "Just... just come inside, OK " Let me help you, he thinks. Let me be there. Just this once, even if it's too late for us, let me in. 

Her hand touches his cheek and her smile, though shaky, is back. "OK." 

He thinks for a second she might say something else, but she remains a woman of few words. "OK then," he says and he stands up, holds out his hand. 

She looks at it for a full six seconds - he counts - and then she puts her hand in his, lets him pull her to her feet. She sways a little bit, steadies herself with her hand on his chest and on a different day, in a different life, Johnno might have done something other than drop a hand to her hip to steady her. Today though, he just smiles down at her, squeezes the hand that's holding hers and that's when he gets a surprise, as if her being here wasn't surprise enough. Because the hand on his chest moves up to his shoulder, then around to the back of his neck. Her other hand finds its way around his waist and she steps into his body, rests her cheek on his shoulder and holds on tightly. Johnno blinks, then keeps his hand on her hip, puts his other on the back of her head and runs his fingers through her hair. She breathes out, a long slow exhale, but she doesn't otherwise move and Johnno's not going to rush her - he learned his lesson about that a long time ago. 

Dinner, he thinks, can wait. He has better things to do with his hands.


End file.
